Scientists estimate that there are 3 to 5 million people in the United States with Ménière's disease, with nearly 100,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Proper diagnosis of Ménière's disease entails several procedures, including a medical-history interview and a physical examination by a physician; hearing and balance tests; and medical imaging with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Accurate measurement and characterization of hearing loss are of critical importance in the diagnosis of Ménière's disease.

Through the use of several types of hearing tests, physicians can characterize hearing loss as being sensory, arising from the inner ear, or neural, arising from the hearing nerve. An auditory brain stem response, which measures electrical activity in the hearing nerve and brain stem, is useful in differentiating between these two types of hearing loss. And under certain circumstances, electrocochleography, recording the electrical activity of the inner ear in response to sound, helps confirm the diagnosis.

To test the vestibular or balance system, physicians irrigate the ears with warm and cool water. This flooding of the ears, known as caloric testing, results in nystagmus, rapid eye movements that can help a physician analyze a balance disorder. And because tumor growth can produce symptoms similar to Ménière's disease, magnetic resonance imaging is a useful test to determine whether a tumor is causing the patients vertigo and hearing loss.

• What is Ménière's disease?
• What causes Ménière's disease?
• What are the symptoms of Ménière's disease?
• How is Ménière's disease treated?
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